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- REPAIR DAMAGED CHECKERING
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Drastic Stock Repair 04/08/2008 - By R.H. McCrory
RHM Pix
Completed - Checkered
A fine rifle of about 1910, very good conditon but for the broken pistol grip repair.
This about a "collection worthy" early autoloading rifle repair that came to me after the owner's frustration with previous attempt. The stock had been broken thru the pistol grip, repaired and the most horrendous finishing job I have ever rescued. The structural repair was sound. My task was to clean up the mess.
One picture shows it at it arrived. In another picture I have cleaned the area in preparation to putting on a new surface. That new surface was done with a layer of sawdust mixed to a paste with clear epoxy glue. The "prepared" surface was smooth, as thought it had never been checkered. I then sent it back to the owner who was to have the checkering professionally done.
Some months later the owner complained he could find no checkerer who would tackle the job. Other than patchwork, my checkering experience is only one previous job on a gun of my own. I had him send it back and I would checker it - which I did. The result is in the completed photo.
Some after-thoughts: I have made wood filler as described for a lot of jobs, the color can be adjusted by mixing different kinds of sawdust and or most any kind of color, artist's colors, paints, leather dye, etc. Epoxy is pretty tolerant of dyes other than water based. For most wood fills I mix the glue well and then mix in the sawdust in the amount that it will peak up a little, which is to say a bit too stiff to flow quickly. After it has set up hard, it works a bit harder than most wood. Pretty nice to work with, doesn't gum up files too bad, etc.
Further to checkering, I have used this basic method to fix damaged 1911 grips. Fill with the epoxy-sawdust paste, the damaged area where the diamonds are missing. Level it off when it gets hard, checker the now-flat patch area. I use a triangle file, ground flat on one side, extending the surrounding checkering thru the patch area as a guide.
Photo Gallery
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Prepared Work Area
Checkered Repair
As Received
